Israeli Underworld

[Junior]

Tip of the iceberg of Israeli organized crime?
By Tomer Zarchin, Haaretz.Com

The Margalit Tzan'ani affair - involving her alleged connections with convicted crime leader Amir Mullner's gang and mob kingpin Shalom Domrani - is training a spotlight on organized crime's increasing activities in the economic realm. It appears that the gangs are no longer content to control activities such as bottle recycling, sand quarrying or loan sharking: They are trying to gain control of companies that are traded on the stock market, and to serve as mediators in business disputes involving legitimate companies. And they are apparently trying to make inroads in the Mizrahi music industry.

The indictment submitted in March 2010 in Be'er Sheva District Court against the head of a crime gang in the south, Hagai Zaguri, and seven of his "soldiers," reveals involvement in a stunningly large and diverse amount of economic activity. From May 2008 and until his arrest in January 2010, Zaguri managed to establish an organization that spread throughout southern Israel, controlled 15 gambling clubs on land and one on a cruise ship, and engaged in cigarette and liquor smuggling, drug trafficking and loan-sharking.

According to the charge sheet, in order to establish itself as an economic power, Zaguri's organization committed a number of violent crimes, including extortion, attempted murder and murder. Yaniv Boublil, a state's witness in the affair, is defined in the indictment as the "organization's economic consultant." The police investigation found that three of the 15 gambling clubs operated by Zaguri in the south took in some NIS 2 million in one year. At least NIS 8 million was distributed in loans by the gang; on some occasions, the rate of interest collected by the organization was as high as 128 percent.

According to data compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, profits raked in by crime groups in developed countries generally range from 3 to 5 percent of a country's GNP. Law-enforcement agencies in Israel estimate that illegal gambling in this country is a NIS 15-billion-a-year business. The value of drugs seized by the police in a given year is estimated at hundreds of millions of shekels. Revenue generated by prostitution in Israel was estimated by a Knesset investigation committee in 2002 as NIS 1 billion a year. And another statistic: Every year, prosecutors manage to seize about NIS 150 million of property held by criminal gangs, before the courts can even hold proceedings related to these cases; in the end, assets worth much less than NIS 150 million usually reach the state treasury.

Dr. Shahar Eldar, an expert on criminal law at Ono Academic College, in Kiryat Ono, who has investigated mob activities in the country - and represented gang leader Asi Abutbul in a Supreme Court proceeding - says that since Israel passed its crime organization law, in 2003, the courts have begun considering indictments involving some traditional areas of organized crime.

"Up to now," Eldar says, "heads of crime organizations who have been convicted in courts were prosecuted for involvement in such activities as drug dealing, threats and extortion, gas-station fraud, including the sale of diluted petroleum, and prostitution. Gang members have yet to be convicted in Israel on illegal gambling charges, but this apparently will happen."

A senior official in the local law-enforcement sphere, who is familiar with organized crime activities, says: "Crime organizations have in recent years decided to establish legitimate enterprises, and to operate them alongside clearly illegal activities. The reason for this decision is simple: They need an organizational infrastructure through which they can launder money and underwrite ongoing activities, and so they can supply loans. Each organization has a money-changing branch, which operates like an actual bank. Sometimes an organization has two or three such businesses. If you already have expertise in collecting debts, why not operate a legitimate debt-collection business? At a later stage, we witness violence in debt collection; that happens when the name of a criminal is used to open doors."

Bar-Moha and his men

For half a year, Jerusalem crime boss Itzik Bar-Moha sat in his prison cell in the Sharon jail and directed a loan-shark enterprise, which was shut down after six months by the police. Investigators discovered that Bar-Moha directed from afar the provision of 370 high-interest loans to some 250 borrowers in Jerusalem, as well as in the center and north of the country. With the assistance of his wife, who sometimes organized conference calls with seven men in the field, Bar-Moha disbursed loans worth a total of NIS 3.3 million. Data compiled in the investigation indicate that he was even more aggressive than Zaguri: He demanded annual interest of 208 percent, and 4 percent weekly, for his loans. Most of the borrowers were made to pay the weekly rate, while the size of the principal loan remained unchanged until the loan was paid off.

Revenue accrued by the organization as a result of interest rates, and often because of collection activities that involved the use of violence, reached a monthly level of NIS 350,000, at least.

For more than a year, the Rishon Letzion Magistrate's Court has been considering a case involving 22 people accused of operating a website for sports gambling, which operated 24 hours a day and allowed people to bet on matches in Israel and around the world. An undercover police investigation, one that went on for 18 months, exposed the site's illegal activity. Each week, police found, site operators calculated users' wins and losses, and the site's representatives would collect the debts. The site is alleged to have generated NIS 290 million of activity while it was in operation. No crime boss has been indicted in the affair, but some of the suspects have been identified as persons with links to the Domrani gang; ultimately, however, prosecutors could not charge Domrani with direct involvement in the affair.

One police source close to the investigation stresses the huge scope of criminal activity in this affair - hundreds of millions of shekels. The source says there is no doubt that the website was operated with the hidden assistance of a crime gang.

Eldar points out that the Japanese crime organization the Yakuza and the Italian mafia in the United States have over the years earned huge sums of money from fraudulent sales of stock of Internet and high-tech companies. Crime gangs entered these areas partly because they promised quick profit.

The senior official in the law enforcement system predicts that crime gangs in Israel will try increasingly to enter similar realms. "When crime organizations enter into legitimate economic fields," he says, "we start to see changes in the ways these fields operate; suddenly, there are threats, violent acts and instances of fraud."

Seizing 'soldiers'

In another case, an indictment was submitted in 2006 against Sagiv Netzia, who had a controlling interest in a company called Orline Development and Investments, and against other employees of the firm. The company was purchased in July 2003 by Aharon Liluf (who committed suicide after the affair was exposed ); Liluf purchased the company via a straw man. Netzia and Liluf were accused of acts of fraud that entrapped stock-market investors in Tel Aviv and artificially inflated share prices; the two suspects also allegedly floated phony stock valued at NIS 10 million, and deposited money from the sale of the worthless stock into their own, or associates', bank accounts. Netzia had apparently also made bogus reports to the stock exchange so that investors would receive a false picture about the company's status.

Last April, Netzia received a five-year prison term and was fined, in the framework of a plea-bargain deal. Attorney Ronen Rosenblum, who represented one of the suspects in this case, confirmed this week that the police investigation unearthed evidence showing the involvement of a crime organization in this affair; no indictments were issued against such a group, however.

One source close to the affair reveals that "the case file had indications suggesting that the Abergil crime gang, headed by Yitzhak Abergil, was behind an effort to gain control of the company, and thereby take control of a legitimate economic enterprise and launder funds, but in the end the leads didn't go as far as [implicating the Abergil gang]." He adds: "The problem is that heads of crime organizations keep their hands clean. They are evasive. It's hard to reach them - you can seize a 'soldier' who works for them, but you can't get to the gang kingpins."

The same Abergil whose gang was thought to have been involved in the Orline affair participated in a well-publicized business dispute that pit the gas and oil exploration company Ratio against the Globus construction firm. Abergil even took part in the selection of a mediator in the dispute, and thus cast his shadow over the arbitration. He recruited crime boss Shalom Domrani as his representative; Domrani turned up at Globus' offices, to summon its directors to an arbitration session at Abergil's home in Kfar Truman.

A lawyer who frequently represents crime figures says: "They're trying to go legitimate, and they look for legitimate economic fields of activity. I think a head of a crime organization would prefer to serve as an arbitrator in a legitimate business dispute, one that can be called 'prestigious,' and exploit his name and reputation as someone who has the last word, than to deal with recycled bottles or gambling activities, even though they also generate money. It appears that even the biggest criminals want to appear in public as legitimate figures."

Well-known crime figures, including Domrani, Amir Mullner, and Meir and Yitzhak Abergil, have served as mediators in business disputes. In some cases, fees earned by a mediator are based on the amount of money paid out in the end.

"I've heard that for such mediation, the head of a crime gang can demand fees worth 50 percent of the sum in dispute," one lawyer says.

The fact that a crime organization, whose "field of expertise" is debt collection, is behind such a mediator provides a sense of security to the side that wins in arbitration; it knows that the mediated settlement is likely to be implemented.

In any event, revelations in the Tzan'ani affair, which police investigators seem to see primarily as a case against Mullner's crime gang, have only just begun to come to light. This week, persons close to the investigation insisted that the affair represents just the tip of the iceberg. They claimed that it constitutes just one small part of intensive activity being undertaken by crime organizations in any area where large sums of money are involved - and these include Mizrahi music.

[Junior]

Mobster Domrani released to house arrest
By YAAKOV LAPPIN, Jerusalem Post
08/29/2011

Southern crime boss Shalom Domrani was released to house arrest on Sunday three days after being arrested on suspicion of being connected to an investigation into alleged extortion by celebrity singer Margalit Tsanani.

Police suspect Tsanani of using acquaintances in the organized crime world – members of an organization headed by alleged mob boss Amir Mullner – to extort and threaten her music agent, Assaf Atadegi.

The singer, a judge on the hit TV song contest program Kohav Nolad (A Star is Born), has denied all suspicions, as the investigation has continued to pose disturbing questions on the involvement of organized crime in sections of the music business.

Domrani is viewed by police as a major underworld kingpin, and law enforcement have kept him under close observation.

Last week, police arrested Domrani on suspicion of assisting Tsanani’s extortion efforts, but he was released after the Lahav 433 Unit was unable to convince state prosecutors that enough evidence existed for a conviction in court.

Domrani’s attorney, Moshe Sherman, said police were persecuting his client simply because of his name.

“The name Shalom Domrani is not a reason for automatic arrest. Proof is needed. If there is no proof, they should not make arrests,” Sherman said on Sunday, according to Channel 10 News.

In March, Domrani and seven associates were charged at the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court with launching an extortion campaign of threats and arson designed to protect their alleged monopoly over the gas distribution market in Sderot.

He became the focus of an undercover investigation by the Economic Crimes Unit and the Lahav 433 Unit after a businessman from Sderot complained to police that Domrani and his associates had targeted him with arson, death threats and extortion as part of a bid to dissuade him from opening a new gas distribution center in Sderot, which would rival the only gas distribution provider in the area.

Meanwhile, the prosecution is expected to file an indictment against Tsanani on Monday on charges of extortion and conspiracy.

The prosecution is also expected to request that the court remand Tsanani in custody for the duration of the case.

Judge Ita Nachman ruled to extend Tsanani’s detention for a further five days last Thursday as police investigations continued, but as the singer has no criminal record it is likely she will be released to house arrest when she appears before the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

[Junior]

Tsanani probe raises questions about mob’s showbiz ties
By YAAKOV LAPPIN, Jerusalem Post, 08/31/2011

Police have long expressed concern that crafty elements from the organized crime world were infiltrating a range of nationally important spheres, from municipalities, land tenders and sports.

As the firestorm being kicked up by the arrest and indictment of celebrity singer and TV personality Margalit Tsanani shows no sign of weakening, police are viewing the case as a window on a worrying association between the Hebrew Mediterranean (Mizrahi) music world – which is the most profitable music market in the country – and the underworld, as well as alleged attempts by mobsters to gain control of the country’s most watched television program.

News programs have in recent days interviewed Mizrahi music stars who pronounced unabashedly that they have performed for some the most notorious criminal elements.

The facts of Tsanani’s case are by now well known. She is charged of turning to individuals who are associated with alleged mob kingpins Amir Mulner and Shalom Domrani with a request to extort the music agent Assaf Atadegi, following a financial dispute.

The dispute revolved around profits made from representing and promoting contestants from Kochav Nolad (A Star is Born), a singing contest program that has become the most highly rated show in the country. Tsanani served as a judge on the program’s panel.

It is what the alleged underworld figures asked Tsanani to do in return for the alleged extortion which paints an apparently bleak picture on the extent of mob involvement in the world of entertainment.

According to suspicions published by Yedioth Ahronoth, Shalom Domrani – considered by police as a major crime boss in southern Israel – allegedly planned on opening an agency that would represent singers from Kochav Nolad, and instructed Tsanani via an associate to begin using her status as a judge to recruit singers from the show to the agency.

Domrani’s lawyer, Moshe Sherman, told Yedioth that the allegations were fabricated by police and had no relation to reality. Domrani was released from custody this week after state prosecutors concluded that insufficient evidence existed to back up the police’s suspicions.

Tsanani is also suspected of answering a request by criminal elements to mention the name of a convict behind bars live on air during the program.

The convict was a relative of one of the contestants, and the mention of his name was allegedly agreed upon beforehand by Tsanani and a mobster.

Tsanani, for her part, has maintained her innocence. Her future trial is expected to shed more light on the case.

In the meantime, the police’s national investigation units have been ordered to continue seeking the dark hand of the mob wherever they suspect it is present.

[Junior]

Police to indict four reputed mobsters
By Ben Hartman, Jerusalem Post
03/25/2012

In what they are calling a major blow to Israeli organized crime, police and prosecutors have prepared an indictment against four underworld figures including reputed senior Abergil crime family member Moti Hassin, in connection to a pair of gangland hits carried out in the Tel Aviv area in the past two years.

Officers from the special YAMAR investigative unit announced the arrests on Sunday, adding that by Monday they will present a series of indictments against Hassin and his alleged accomplices Shlomi Niamchuk, Ofir Niamchuk, and Yitzhak Zerbi.

The cases in question include the killing of Avi David, shot dead at point blank range by a motorcyclist outside a Bat Yam steakhouse last October, and Itzik Geffen, who died in a hail of gunfire at a gas station next to Wolfson Hospital in Holon two months later.

Police described the arrests as part of a unique “top down” case, which focused on the plotters of the killings, and not the actual trigger man.

In a press conference held at police headquarters in Tel Aviv on Sunday, officers said the main motive for the killings was Geffen and David’s intention to join a rival crime family.

Officer Nir Shwartz, head of the investigative branch of YAMAR Tel Aviv, said the most crucial aspect of the case is that “we were able to put our hands not on the one who pulled the trigger but the one who planned the murders and sent the killers.“

Shwartz said Hassin placed himself at the scene of David’s murder in order to make it appear that he was a target as well, but by doing so he in fact led police to look at him as a central suspect. Police reportedly have surveillance camera footage from the restaurant showing Hassin sitting at a table with David shortly before the murder.

YAMAR Tel Aviv District Commander Gadi Eshed said Sunday that he believes the indictments will have a great effect on increasing the public’s feeling of security, due to the fact that both incidents happened in public places and in both instances innocent bystanders could have easily been killed.

Hassin’s lawyer Moshe Suchmi laughed off the police allegations Sunday, saying that there is no evidence against his client and the police held the press conference only for the purpose of public relations.

“They say they don’t know who fired the shots, they have no evidence whatsoever against my client. This is just one more attempt by the police to attach an unsolved murder case to Moti,” Suchmi said, adding “it would be funny if it wasn’t sad.”

Police believe Hassin took the reins of the Abergil family after Itzik Abergil and his brother Meir were extradited to the states in early 2011 on a litany of drug and violent crime charges. While Itzik remains incarcerated in the states awaiting trial, Meir was freed and returned to Israel in August 2011. Police believe that the murders were carried out by Hassin partly as a means of establishing his position as the new leader of the crime family and a force to be reckoned with.

[Junior]

Nine charged with belonging to Ashdod organized crime ring
By Joanna Paraszczuk, Jerusalem Post, 04/10/2012

The Southern District Attorney filed an indictment in the Beersheba District Court on Tuesday, charging nine men with belonging to an organized crime ring in Ashdod.

Armond Meira and eight others are charged with belonging to an organized crime ring operating in Ashdod.

According to the indictment, Meira headed the criminal organization, whose illegal activities included gambling operations in Ashdod and Beit Shemesh, money laundering, tax fraud, and extorting business owners in Ashdod.

Among those charged is Meir Ben Guzi, chairman of Ashdod's municipal workers' committee.

A spokesman for the district attorney said on Tuesday that the indictment is the result of integrated efforts by law-enforcement authorities to crack down on organized crime.

[Junior]

Police arrest mobster; hid weapons in school
By Ben Hartman, Jerusalem Post
05/01/2012

Police on Sunday arrested a man they believe stashed guns in a Bat Yam kindergarten, which they suspect were to be used as part of an ongoing power struggle in Israeli organized crime.

The police say Lior Amsalem, a 38-year-old Bat Yam resident, stored drugs and an arsenal of firearms on the roof of a kindergarten in the city. On Monday the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court extended his remand by seven days.

Police found the weapons during a drug raid in mid-February. The firearms included an M16, pistols, explosives, and hand grenades.

A spokesman for the Tel Aviv police said that Amsalem is suspected to be a member of the crime family run by Moti Hassin, and that the guns were likely intended for use in an ongoing power struggle in Israeli organized crime.

The spokesman said that Amsalem lived next door to the kindergarten and is suspected of stashing the guns on the roof of the building at nighttime, long after closing hours. He added that no one at the kindergarten is linked to the criminal act, and that while the guns were well-hidden there was a possibility that children could have been hurt if they had discovered the weapons.

According to the spokesman, the raid was part of an ongoing investigation into the Hassin family being carried out by the special YAMAR investigative unit.

In late March the Tel Aviv District Attorney filed an indictment in the Tel Aviv District Court charging four members of the Hassin organization, including Hassin himself, in connection with the 2011 gangland murder of Avi David. David, a known criminal underworld figure, was shot dead at close range last October outside a restaurant in Bat Yam.

Indicted alongside Hassin were three Bat Yam residents: 29-year-old Zalman Shlomo Niamchik, 28- year-old Ofir Niamchik and Yitzhak Zarabi, 29.

Niamchik also stands accused in the murder of Itzik Geffen, who was killed in a second gangland shooting at a gas station near Holon’s Wolfson Hospital, two months after David’s murder.

Police believe Hassin took charge of the Abergil family after Itzik Abergil and his brother Meir were extradited to the US in early 2011 on a litany of drug and violent crime charges. Though Itzik remains incarcerated in the US awaiting trial, Meir was freed and returned to Israel in August 2011.

In March, police said they believe Hassin carried out the two murders partly as a show of force to establish his position as the new leader of the crime family.

[Junior]

5 Abergil crime ring members arrested in J'lem
By Melanie Lidman, Jerusalem Post
May 5, 2012

Jerusalem police arrested five men on Thursday morning who allegedly belong to the Yitzhak Abergil organized crime ring. The men are suspected of conspiring to commit a crime and possessing deadly weapons. According to the suspects, they were planning to take revenge on a Jerusalem resident, who is known to police for previous incidents, who owed the group money.

The suspects followed the advice of Abergil, who is currently incarcerated in the US, of hiding weapons in public buildings so as to deflect any suspicion from the group. Two days ago, police discovered a weapons cache, including guns and bullets, inside a storage room in an apartment building on Derech Hebron in Jerusalem. Parents of one of the suspects live in the building where the weapons were discovered.

Upon further searches of the suspects’ homes, police discovered ceramic bulletproof vests which had bullet holes and other signs of violence. Police suspect that the crime ring had planned to carry out a major attack in the near future.

The suspects will be remanded on Thursday afternoon in the Jerusalem Magistrates Court.

Yitzhak Abergil and his brother Meir, two of Israel’s most notorious crime bosses, were extradited to the US on January 13, 2011 to stand trial on charges that include ordering a murder, money-laundering, extortion and trading in Ecstasy.

[Junior]

Israeli crime boss pleads guilty to drug and racketeering charges in LA
MyFoxdfw.com, May 8, 2012

LOS ANGELES -- An Israeli man allegedly in charge of an international organized crime group pleaded guilty to drug and racketeering charges in Los Angeles federal court.

Itzhak Abergil, 43, was charged in 2008 after US federal agents intercepted roughly 100,000 ecstasy pills at different locations in the Midwest. The drugs, worth around $2 million, were bound for Los Angeles, authorities said Monday.

The US Attorney's office says he is the head of a criminal organization that participated in "criminal activities in Israel and around the world."

The 77-page indictment says that Abergil and others conspired to import the drug to the US, as well as commit extortion and murder, the Los Angeles Times reported.

His organization also was responsible for killing a man who interfered with a drug deal in Los Angeles in 2003, authorities claim.

Abergil is set to be sentenced May 21.

[Junior]

Netanya mobster among three arrested for arson attacks
By YAAKOV LAPPIN, Jerusalem Post, 05/22/2012

Netanya underworld figure Charlie Abutbul and two other suspects were arrested Monday on suspicion of carrying out a string of arson attacks and an aggravated robbery as part of a feud with a rival crime organization.

“I’ve already retired. I don’t understand why they arrested me,” Abutbul told reporters at the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court, where he was brought for a remand hearing.

Abutbul said he told police all that he knew, and accused detectives of harassing members of his family.

“But I’m calm. I’m not worried,” he said.

The court extended all of the suspects’ custody by four days.

The investigation is being led by the Serious and International Crimes Unit, based at police headquarters in Jerusalem. Police said the alleged offenses related to incidents that occurred recently in Netanya, though they did not go into details.

In 2008, Abutbul was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt at a Netanya kiosk. Three civilians were lightly wounded in the shooting.

In 2010, unidentified men riding on a motorcycle shot at Abutbul in Netanya.

The Bat Haikar (Farmer’s Daughter) restaurant in Netanya’s industrial zone, which is owned by the Abutbul family, has been the target of several arson attacks.

[Junior]

Crime boss unlikely to get pardon despite his poor health
By Tomer Zarchin, Haaretz.com, Jul 2, 2012

Despite his precarious state of health, law enforcement officials are adamantly opposing organized crime figure Ze'ev Rosenstein's request for a presidential pardon, Haaretz has learned.

The Justice Ministry recently spelled out these objections in a document it sent to President Shimon Peres, contending in part that Rosenstein's release would pose a threat to the public because he is a target of assassination by other underworld figures. The ministry also noted that pardoning an organized crime kingpin would deal a blow to the law enforcement system that worked so hard to put Rosenstein behind bars in the first place.

Rosenstein filed his request for a pardon last October. But in light of opposition by the Justice Ministry and from Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman himself, and as a result of the special circumstances of the case, it is widely assumed Peres will not grant the pardon.

Rosenstein, in his late fifties, had been the country's most wanted police suspect for a number of years and is currently serving two consecutive 17-year sentences in prison, following convictions for murder and for the attempted assassination of his rivals. He was also tried and convicted for trafficking 1 million Ecstasy pills in the United States, after being extradited by Israel in 2006 to stand trial there.

He eventually cut a plea agreement that enabled him to serve time for his U.S. conviction in Israel, after complaining about the harsh detention conditions in the United States. He claimed that he admitted to crimes he never committed as part of the deal.

Last month Rosenstein's lawyer, Yifat Winkler, asked that the clemency request be put on hold, to give her an opportunity to provide additional information about her client's deteriorating medical condition. Winkler has since sent that additional information and the clemency request is now before Peres, for the president's consideration.

Hit and miss

Among assassination attempts in which Rosenstein was targeted was an attempted hit in Tel Aviv in 2003, in which three bystanders were killed and about 20 others injured; it was considered the worst attack of its kind in the country's history. Several months earlier, Rosenstein sustained light injuries at another Tel Aviv location when an explosive was detonated near him, injuring nine other people as well.

After he returned to Israel following his American detention, he admitted in a plea bargain that he ordered two Colombians to carry out a hit on his rivals in Israel, brothers Nissim and Yaakov Alperon. Rosenstein subsequently canceled the hit. The three-year sentence he received ran concurrent with the sentence for the drug conviction in the United States. In February of this year, Rosenstein was also convicted, again as part of a plea bargain, of conspiracy to commit a triple murder in 2001 at a Sea of Galilee beach.